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On return to Pak, Sharif and daughter may face arrest

Agencies
July 13, 2018

Lahore, Jul 13: Pakistan's embattled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam are set to arrive in Lahore on Friday to face arrest in a corruption case, amid high security and a massive crackdown on his party activists.

The Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz leader and his daughter stopped over in Abu Dhabi on their way to Pakistan from London.

Sharif and Maryam are expected to land at Lahore's Allama Iqbal International Airport at 6.15 PM (local time) via Abu Dhabi on Etihad Airways flight EY243, the Dawn reported.

They will be arrested on their arrival at Lahore airport from where they will be taken to Islamabad by helicopter so that they can be sent to Adiala jail for imprisonment.

In a video message, tweeted by Maryam, the former premier urged his followers to stand with him and "change the fate of the country".

"The country is at a critical juncture right now," Sharif, 68, said.

"I have done what I could. I am aware that I have been sentenced to 10 years [in prison] and I will be taken to a jail cell straight away. But I want the Pakistani nation to know that I am doing this for you."

The two PML-N leaders are returning to Pakistan to face a prison sentence handed out on July 6 by an accountability court in the Avenfield properties case, one of the three corruption cases against him following the Panama Papers scandal.

Sharif and Maryam have been sentenced to 10 and 7 years in jail respectively.

Sharif, who was in London with his wife and children when the verdict was announced, said he is returning to Pakistan from London to fulfil his pledge to "honour the vote".

Addressing a press conference in London with Maryam by his side, Sharif had said he has decided to return to the country "despite seeing the bars of prison in front of my eyes".

"Is there any Pakistani who has had three generations of his family go through an accountability process only to find out that no corruption was ever done?" he asked during the presser.

He also criticised the court's decision to sentence his daughter to a seven-year term in jail, saying those who did so "did not even remember in their hate what stature daughters have in Pakistan".

Maryam took to Twitter to post pictures of the scenes in London before their departure. In one picture, the father and daughter are seen bidding a teary farewell to Kulsoom Nawaz, who is said to be comatose and admitted at a London hospital.

Over 300 PML-N workers and leaders have been detained in Pakistan in a massive crackdown on the party activists in Lahore ahead of the arrival of Sharif.

Around 10,000 police officers have been deployed across the city to maintain law and order.

Lahore police have also placed containers on roads leading to the airport. A narrow passage has been left for motorists where police have been deployed for checking.

The anti-graft body - National Accountability Bureau (NAB) - chairman Javed Iqbal has ordered taking all necessary measures to arrest Sharif and Maryam upon their arrival at the airport.

He has also formed a 16-member team to arrest them and shift them to Adiala Jail Rawalpindi after producing them at the accountability court that sentenced the father-daughter duo last week.

According to sources, the Cabinet Division has allocated two helicopters - reserved for the prime minister - to NAB to shift Sharif and his daughter to jail from the airport.

Sharif, who was disqualified by the Supreme Court last year in the Panama Papers case, is now the supremo of the PML-N.

PML(N) leaders are mobilising the party workers to reach the airport in a large number.

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News Network
March 7,2020

Mar 7: Two Malayalam news channels, Asianet News and Media One, which were banned by the information and broadcasting ministry for their coverage of the recent violence in Delhi on Friday evening, were allowed to resume telecasting on Saturday morning.

While Asianet News appeared to have begun operations around 7am on Saturday, Media One was screening content by 9.30am.

The ministry of information and broadcasting had imposed a 48-hour ban on Asianet News and Media One for their coverage of the Delhi violence for 48 hours from 7.30pm on Friday. Both Asianet News and Media One were barred under Rule 6(1 c) and Rule 6(1e) of the Cable Television Networks Act, 1994.

The ministry of information and broadcasting alleged Asianet News and Media One were "biased" and critical of the RSS and Delhi Police.

The ban on Asianet News and Media One triggered a torrent of criticism of the move. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor asked how "Malayalam channels inflame communal passions in Delhi?" and alleged some English news channels were continuing "their brazen distortions" with impunity.

In a statement issued on Friday after the ban, Media One termed the move "unfortunate and condemnable" and called it a "blatant attack against free and fair reporting". Media One called it "an order to stop free and fair journalism".

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News Network
February 3,2020

New Delhi, Feb 3: The Allahabad High Court on Monday granted bail to former BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand in the alleged rape case of a law student. He was arrested in September last year after the 23-year-old woman accused him of sexual harassment and blackmail.

The woman was a student of the Chinmayanand-controlled SS Law College in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Chinmayanand is facing charges under Sections 376C (sexual intercourse by a person or persons taking advantage of their official position), 354 D (stalking), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The case is being investigated by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed on the directions of the Supreme Court.

The case came to light after the woman posted a video on August 23 last year on social media alleging that “a senior leader of the saint community” was harassing and threatening to kill her. The law student went missing a day later, after which her father lodged a complaint, accusing Chinmayanand of harassing his daughter.

Chinmayanand was expelled from the BJP after his arrest.

The SIT had, on November 6, submitted chargesheet in the case.

In a parallel case, the woman was charged with trying to extort money from Chinmayanad. The Allahabad High Court granted her bail in that case in December last year.

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Agencies
July 29,2020

Dubai, Jul 29: Muslim pilgrims on Wednesday begin the annual Haj, downsized this year as the Saudi hosts strive to prevent a coronavirus outbreak during the five-day pilgrimage.

The Haj, one of the five pillars of Islam and a must for able-bodied Muslims at least once in their lifetime, is usually one of the world's largest religious gatherings.

But this year only up to 10,000 people already residing in the Kingdom will participate in the ritual, a tiny fraction of the 2.5 million pilgrims from around the world that attended last year.

"There are no security-related concerns in this pilgrimage, but (downsizing) is to protect pilgrims from the danger of the pandemic," said Khalid bin Qarar Al Harbi, Saudi Arabia's director of public security.

Pilgrims will be required to wear masks and observe social distancing during a series of religious rites that are completed over five days in the holy city of Makkah and its surroundings in western Saudi Arabia.

Those selected to take part in the Haj were subject to temperature checks and placed in quarantine as they began trickling into Makkah at the weekend.

State media showed health workers sanitising their luggage, and some pilgrims reported being given electronic wristbands to allow authorities to monitor their whereabouts.

Workers, clutching brooms and disinfectant, were seen cleaning the area around the Kaaba, the structure at the centre of the Grand Mosque draped in gold-embroidered cloth towards which Muslims around the world pray.

Haj authorities have cordoned off the Holy Kaaba this year, saying pilgrims will not be allowed to touch it, to limit the chances of infection.

They also reported setting up multiple health facilities, mobile clinics and ambulances to cater to the pilgrims.

Saudi authorities said only around 1,000 pilgrims residing in the Kingdom would be permitted for the Haj. Some 70 per cent of the pilgrims are foreigners residing in the Kingdom, while the rest will be Saudi citizens, authorities said.

All worshippers were required to be tested for coronavirus before arriving in the holy city of Makkah and will also have to quarantine after the pilgrimage as the number of cases in the Kingdom nears 270,000.

They were given elaborate amenity kits that include sterilised pebbles for a stoning ritual, disinfectants, masks, a prayer rug and the Ihram, a seamless white garment worn by pilgrims, according to a Haj ministry programme document.

"I did not expect, among millions of Muslims, to be blessed with approval," Emirati pilgrim Abdullah Al Kathiri said in a video released by the Saudi media ministry.

"It is an indescribable feeling... especially since it is my first pilgrimage."

The Haj ministry said non-Saudi residents of the Kingdom from around 160 countries competed in the online selection process but it did not say how many people applied.

Despite the pandemic, many pilgrims consider it safer to participate in this year's ritual without the usual colossal crowds cramming into tiny religious sites, which make it a logistical nightmare and a health hazard.

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